MARKETING

Social Responsibility of Marketing towards Society:

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Marketing should protect societal interests through:
i. Environmental quality: Marketing should make all efforts to protect and promote environmental quality. It should work for clean and green environments by the use of recyclable materials. Natural resources should be judiciously used. Pollution should be controlled by protecting forests, rivers, lakes, wild life and air.

ii. Employment Generation: Marketing should generate employment opportunities, especially for women and disadvantaged groups. Industries should be promoted in less developed and backward regions.

iii. Meet Community Needs: Marketing should contribute to social causes such as education, health, arts, culture, sports etc. It should use its expertise and resources to solve social problems.

Marketing should strike a balance between the interests of the consumers, the organization and the society under the societal concept of marketing.

Social Responsibility of Marketing towards customers:

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Marketing should protect customer's interests through:
i. Product quality: Provision of reliable products at reasonable prices, Guarantee, warranty and after sales service offers should be honoured. Adulteration and activities that cause health hazard should not be undertaken.

ii. Product safety: Provision of safe products that do not cause injury of accidents. Child safety should be a prority.

iii. Honesty: Marketing should have honesty in promotion. Misleading, false and unethical advertising should be avoided. It should not indulge in bribe and kick offs.

iv. Customer Rights: Marketing should respect and protect consumer rights. It should bot indulge in restrictive trade practices, profiteering, black marketing and hoarding. It should be proactive to consumerism and environmental protection movements.

The Societal Marketing Concept

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Marketing survives and grows in the social context. All marketing decisions have social implications. Marketing must set responsibility and ethically toward consumers and society. The societal marketing concept is an emerging concept. It holds that organizational objectives should be achieved through customer need satisfaction in ways that protect the interests of the consumers and safeguard the well being of society. Marketing must be socially responsible. It should be accountable to society for its actions.
The societal marketing concept has the following features:
a. Social responsibility orientation of marketing to enhance social welfare. It can be improving environmental quality, creating employment opportunities, supporting socially desirable issues, meeting social needs. Such programmes are well designed.

b. Customer need satisfaction in the target market through the delivery of superior value products compared to competitors.

c. Integrated marketing efforts through organization wide marketing think. All activities related to marketing are assigned to the marketing department.

d. Profits through proper considerations to the interests of consumers, organization and society.

The social responsibility of marketing is both towards customers and society.

The Customer Concept

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This concept holds that individual customer is the key to achieving organizational objectives. Marketing is done to satisfy the needs of individual customer. This concept has the following features:
a. Focus on individual customer needs and values.
b. Tailoring marketing programme to the needs of individual customer. Customized marketing mix. Individualized promotion and distribution.
c. Capture larger share of each customer's expenditure.
d. One to one marketing intergration.
e. Profit through customer loyalty and retention.
Organization collect information about the profile of each customer. They use e-commerce and the latest information technology. This is useful to companies selling lots high value products. Such products need periodic replacement or upgrading.

The Marketing Concept(New Marketing Concept)

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This concept holds that the key to achieving organizational objectives consist of market orientation. Integration of marketing activities to satisfy the need of customers. This concept has the following features.
a.Target market: Well defined target market. Tailored marketing programme which is efficient and effective than competitors.
b. Customer-orientation: Focus on customer needs. The aim is to make what the customers want. Organizational activities are focused on determining and satisfying customer needs. Orientation of the organization towards creating value-adding products.
c. Integrated Marketing: Integrated of all the activities that affect customers through coordinated marketing efforts. All departments in the organization should work together to serve the customer's interests.
d. Objectives Achievement: The ultimate purpose of the marketing concept is to help organizations achieve their objectives. Organizations can best achieve objectives by providing customer need satisfaction.

The marketing concept is a new way of thinking about organizational activities. Managers focus all activities at determining customer needs in the target market. Profit through customer satisfaction is the objective of a business organization. All departments "think customer."

The Selling Concept (Old Marketing Concept)

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This concept holds that customers should be persuaded into buying through aggressive selling and promotion efforts. This concept has the following features.
a. Selling orientation of the organization which aims at satisfying the seller's needs. It focuses on products. The aim is to sell what is made.

b. Aggressive selling and promotion to attract customer; pushing the products in the market for high sales.

c. No concern for customer's needs.

d. Customers persuasion into buying existing products through a range of selling techniques.

Under this concept, managers focus on stimulating sales through promotional tools. This concept is dominant in Nepalese organizations. It is popular with non-profit organizations for social marketing. It is also used for political marketing. This concept is useful where overcapacity exists.

The Product Concept

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This concept holds that customers favor products that offer good quality, high performance, and innovative features. This concepts has the following features:

Quality orientation of the organization. It aims at improving the product through innovation.
Superior products at reasonable price; long lasting well made products.
No concern for customer needs; product orientation.
Quality improvements over time to attract customers.

Under this concept, managers focus on making superior products. They disregard customer preferences. They give excessive attention to product. But changing customer preferences and technology make the products obsolete.

The Production Concept

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This concept holds that customers prefer widely available and low cost products. This concepts has the following features:

Production-orientation of the organization. It aims at selling what can be produced.
High production efficiency through improved technology, standardization and mass production.
Mass distribution of the product to facilitate wider availability.
Low price to attract customers. Price is regarded as critical for marketing.

Under this concept, managers concentrate on increasing production volume, reducing costs, and mass distribution. Many Nepalese organization are still working under the production concept. This concept is widespread in developing countries.
This concept is useful to expand the market share. But it leads to impersonal and poor quality service. It ignores non price variables.

Marketing Concepts

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Over the years,various concepts of marketing have developed. They are:

The Production concept
The Selling concept
The Product concept
The Marketing concept
The Consumer concept
The Societal Marketing concept

Target Market and Marketing

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Target Market: No single product can satisfy everyone in the market. The total market is segmented. Segmentation is the process of dividing the total market into homogeneous groups of customers. Members in the group share similar needs and characteristics. Each group requires a distinct marketing mix. The chosen segments for marketing constitute the target market.

Target market consists of actual and potential customers in chosen segments. They have want to satisfy and ability and willingness to engage in exchange relationships.
Target market can be consumer, industrial, institutional and global.

Marketing: Marketing is a societal process which encompasses all activities aimed at satisfying customer needs and wants through exchange relationships to achieve organizational objectives in a dynamic environment.

Relationships, Networks, Supply Chain

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Relationships: They are long term mutually, satisfying relations with key parties customers, suppliers, channels. The focus is to build lifetime loyal customers. Knowing customers and delivery of high customer value and satisfaction build relationships. They result in relationship marketing which ensures that customers remain as loyal customers.

Networks: They consist of the organization and its key stakeholders. They are the result of relationships.
Stakeholders consist of customers, suppliers, employees, technological partners, channel members, and advertising agencies. The organization has mutually beneficial relationships with them. Today, the competition is between marketing networks, not between companies.

Supply Chain: Supply chain is a value delivery network. Each party in the creates a higher value for other party involved in the chain. In return, a part of value created is retained as profit by each party.
Supply chain directs marketing efforts at maintaining backward linkages consisting of relationships with the suppliers of raw, technology, finance and semi finished products. Mutually beneficial relationships are built with key stakeholders to capture the value generated by the supply chain

Exchange and Transactions

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a. Exchange is the process of obtaining a desired product from someone by offering something of value in return. Exchange is the essence of marketing. It is a value creation process.
Five conditions should be satisfied for exchange to take place:
i. Two or more parties should participate (buyer and seller)
ii. Each party must have something of value that the other party desires.
iii. Each party should be capable of communication and delivery.
iv. Each party should be free to accept or reject the offer.
v. Each party should believe that it is appropriate or desirable to deal with the other party.

b. Transaction is a trade of values between two or more parties. It can be in monetary or barter forms. When the exchange is made, it results into transaction.

Value, Satisfaction, Quality

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a. Value: It is the ratio between what the customer gets and what he gives. The customer gets benefits and gives costs. Product choice is guided by the value provided by the product.

Benefits can be functional and emotional
Costs can be monetary, time, energy and psychic.

Marketing should provide value to the customers by raising benefits and reducing costs.

b. Satisfaction: It is the customer's perceived performance from a product in relation to the expectations.
The customer is dissatisfied if the performance falls short of expectations; satisfied if the performance matches the expectations; delighted if the performance exceeds expectations.
Marketing aims for total customer satisfaction by matching product performance with expectations.

c. Quality: Quality is perception of product excellence by customers. It is linked to customer need satisfaction. Organizations adopt the concept of Total Quality Management (TQM). They continuously improve the quality of their products for customer satisfaction. Everyone is committed and involved to satisfy customer needs through quality improvement.

Products and Brands

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A product is any thing that satisfies a need or want. Organizations develop products for the target market. Products can be of the following types:

Goods: Physical goods such as foods, clothing, books, cosmetics, computer. They are tangible and touchable. They can be owned.
Services: Intangible activities which cannot be owned or touched. Examples are computer training, hairdressing, car repair, management consultancy and lecturing in the classroom.

a. Most goods also deliver services. A computer provides data processing service.

Ideas: Ideas include concepts, philosophics, causes and issues. Basic ideas like environmental protection, consumerism, human rights, equality of sexes, and property rights to women etc.
Experiences: Experiences like climbing the Mount Everest, rafting trip in Trisuli River, Balloon flying, cable car ride, etc.
Events: Time based events such as Olympic games, South Asian Federation games, exhibitions, artistic performance, conventions etc.
Persons: Celebrity marketing for political leaders, movie stars, artists and professionals.
Places: Specific location such as country, region, city or village to attract tourists, factories, offices, residents, etc. An example is "Visit Nepal 1998".
Properties: They are intengible rights of ownership. They can be land, houses, shares, debentures, etc.
Organizations: They are building of strong and favourable public image. Examples are: SONY - It's 'SONY PHILIPS- "Let's make things better". Hulas " Why buy others when Hulas is there".
Information: Production and distribution of information by schools, universities, newspapers, magazines, internet, CDs, etc.

Most products are branded for identification.

Needs-Wants-Demands

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a. Needs: They exist in the individual. They describe basic human requirements. They indicate a state of felt deprivation. Marketing does not create needs. They exist in the individual. People have various needs:

Physical needs: For food, clothing, shelter.
Safety needs: For protection from physical harm and economic threat.
Social needs: For love, friendship and belongingness.
Ego needs: For status recognition and self-esteem, and
Self development needs: For knowledge, achievement and creativity.

b.Wants: They are specific satisfiers of needs. Specific products satisfy wants. Marketing influences wants by offering various products. Wants are unlimited. Resources are limited. Customers want high value and satisfaction for money. They are shaped by:

Socio - cultural forces: Reference groups, friends, social class, ethnicity, language, religion.
Institutions: Families, schools, business, etc.
Individual: Personality, life style, etc.

c. Demand: They are wants for specific products backed by ability and willingness to buy. Wants backed by purchasing power(money) and willingness to spend the money become demand.

Marketing stimulated demand through marketing mix offer.

Core Concepts of Marketing

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Marketing consists of a bundle of core concepts. They represent the language of marketing. Marketing can be better understood by an understanding of its core concepts are:

Needs, wants, demand
Products
Value, satisfaction, quality
Exchange and transactions
Relationships, networks and supply chain
Target markets and marketing

Characteristics of Marketing

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Marketing has the following characteristics:
a. Marketing is a social process:
Process is a systematic way of performing activities. Marketing process manages activities. Such activities are of value to customers. There are performed in societal context.

b. Marketing consists of activities:
An activity consumes resources and time. It can be performed by individual, group or organization. Marketing activities facilitate exchange relationships. They can be:
i. Product-related activities: They are concerned with new product development, modifying existing products, branding, packaging, labellings, and quality control etc.

ii. Price-related activities: They are concerned with pricing objectives, pricing policies and strategies and determining methods to set price.

iii. Place - related activities: They are concerned with distribution of products. They consists of channels and physical distribution activities.

iv. Promotion -related activities: They are concerned with promotional objectives, promotion mix, selecting media, developming messages, and implementing sales promotion schemes.

c. Marketing satisfies customer needs:
Human needs are the starting point of marketing. Needs are basic human requirement. Products that give value to customers satisfy needs.
Wants are specific satisfies of needs. Products satisfy wants. For a hungry person, food is a need but 'motto' is a want.
Customer satisfaction is the focus of marketing. It works for customer satisfaction.

d. Marketing Facilitates Exchange Relationships
Exchange is a value creation process. It is the act of obtaining a desired product from someone by offering something of value in return. Marketing facilitates exchange relationships between the buyer and the seller.
Five conditions should be satisfied for exchange to take place:
i. Two or more parties should participate ( buyer and seller )
ii. Each party should have something of value that the other party desires, such as product, money.
iii. Each party should be capable of communication and delivery.
iv. Each party should be free to accept or reject the offer.
v. Each party should believe that it is appropriate to deal with the other party.

e. Marketing helps achieve objectives
Objectives are end results to be achieved. Marketing helps achieve the organizational objectives which can be:

Profit: It is excess of income over expenditure. It serves as the primary objective of business organizations.
Service: It is performing useful service to enhance consumer and social welfare. Non-profit organizations pursue service objective.
Growth: It is growth in terms of sales, market share and profits. Growth is the essence of all organizations.
Survival: It is staying alive to thrive in future. Organizations pursue this goal during economic difficulties.
Leadership: It is market leadership through continuous techbological innovation and quality improvements.

f. Marketing occurs in a dynamic environment
Marketing is environment specific. It occurs in a dynamic environment. Changing environmental forces provide opportunities and threats to marketing. Such forces can be political-legal, economic, socio-cultural and technological. They occur from:

Increasing uncertainty resulting from increasing complexity.
Increasing competition resulting from liberalisation and globalization. Competition is everywhere.
Increasing technological change resulting from technological advances such as information technology, bio-technology and nano-technology (marketing products smaller). New products appear worldwide in a short time.

Definition of Marketing

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According to American Marketing Association

Marketing is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational goals.

According to E. Jerome McCarthy

Marketing is the performance of activities that seek to accomplish an organization's objectives by anticipating customer or client needs and directing a flow of need-satisfying goods and services from producer to customer or client.

According to Stanton, Etzel and Walker

Marketing is a total system of business activities designed to plan, price, promote and distribute want-satisfying products to target markets to achieve organizational objectives.

According to Philip Kotler

Marketing is a societal process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need ans want through creating, offering, and freely exchanging products and services of value with others.

For the purposes, Marketing can be defined as follows:
Marketing is a societal process which encompasses all activities aimed at satisfying customer needs and wants through exchange relationships to achieve organizational objectives in a dynamic environment.

Meaning of Marketing

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Marketing deals with customers. Marketing activities are part of everyday life. This is the age of marketing. All types of organizations need marketing to achieve their objectives. Marketing has gained a great deal of importance for the success of modern organizations.
To the general public, marketing is selling products. However, selling represents only part of marketing. Marketing consists of creating, promotion and delivering products to satisfy customer needs. It creates value for customers. It delivers satisfaction to customers.
Marketing is demand management. It stimulates demand for products. It helps organizations to understand what their customers need and want. It also helps to decide what products should be offered to satisfy their needs and wants.
Marketing is concerned not only with attracting customers but also with retaining customers. Value attracts customers. Satisfaction retains customers. It is carried on long after the customer has bought the product. It aims to develop long term relationship to keep the customers satisfied.

Forex market

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The forex market exchange is also symbolized as "forex" or the "FX" market. Forex exchange market is the place where the currency is traded. It is one of the largest market in which the currency of the world is included.We can say that there is not specific place for exchange of currency. The forex trade is run over the counter.The forex market is open five days a week,24 hours a day in which the currincies are traded all over the world among the major finincial city centers like London, Singapore, Sydney, New York, Tokyo, Paries, zurich, Hongkong and Frankfurt.Anyone can participate like person, country or firm in this market. It is the largest market in the world in terms of the total cash value traded.

Forex marketing

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A forex can be defined as the exchange transaction between the buyers and sellers in the market.forex is also known as the foreign exchange market. More then $4 trillion is spend through the forex market every day.Forex market is important because trade and transactions among the countries are enabled by f market and create an opportunity for investment for investors who don't care engaging in speculation.

Industry

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Nepal's first industrial factory named the Biratnagar Jute Mill Ltd. was set-up in the year 1936. It was the joint venture of Nepalese and Indian capitalists. Then, many organized industries which were established at the time of second world war.
These days every developing nation in the world is craving after the attainment of rapid industrialization. It is because industrialization is the prime process of accomplishing economic development. Economic prosperity achieved by the so-called developed countries of the world is largely be dint of rapid industrialization. This apparently reflects the tremendous significance of industrialization. Industrial development is more or less deeply associated with, and dependent on, other vital aspects such as agricultural, trade, transport, state policy and human attitude and efforts. Moreover, industrialization is a long-term affair and the road to its attainment is not as smooth as expected. Nepal is the sphere of industrial development is still in an infant stage and is just struggling to get matured. The contribution of manufacturing sector to GDP is estimated to be below 10 percent. Nepalese economy is still dependent mainly upon agriculture.

Foreign trade

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Foreign trade represents one of the various forms of trade and is of tremendous significance in the economic life of Nepal. It is no less significant than any other economic sector such as agriculture, industry and transport. All these aspects are deeply related with and dependent on foreign trade. It is also one of the most important sources of earning foreign currencies. Economic prosperity attained by developed countries of the world is basically due to development in their foreign trade. In addition, it exerts great influences on the volume and variety of both production and consumption in the country. It is also the major means of satisfying the growing wants of the nationals. Moreover, the execution of development projects and programs to hinges largely on foreign trade. As such, the role of foreign trade on the process of economic development is very immense. On the other hand, owing to being a landlocked country with poor economy, Nepal's foreign trade is still weak, indeed.

Agriculture

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It is widely recognized that agriculture is the keystone as well as backbone of the entire economic structure of Nepal. It is the prime source of food for man and raw materials for industry. The role it plays on the economic system of the country is undoubtedly tremendous. To be more specific, agriculture in Nepal provides livelihood to 66 percent of the total working population and contributes more than 35 percent of the total GDP. The reflects that in the present context of Nepalese economy, no other economic sector deserves as much attention as agriculture does.
In early stages of development, the share of agriculture in Nepal stood at more than 70 percent in the GDP. Later on, its share gradually comes down as the share of industries and services sector in the overall national income accelerates. The share of agriculture in Nepal's GDP is about 40 percent, which regarded as a major source of national income.

Study of Nepalese Marketing Environment

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Nepalese marketing environment can be studiesd as follows:
1. Economy
2. Social and Culture
3. Demography
4. Political and Legal
5. Technological

1. Economy
Nepalese economy consists income distribution, tourism, agriculture, foreign trade, industry and natural resources.

Income Distribution
There is inequality of income distribution in Nepal. Nepal is a least developed country with a per capita income of US $ 244. Around 42% of the total population has been remained below the poverty line.

Tourism

The history of the development of tourism industry in Nepal is too short. Up to the year 1950, Nepal was absolutely aloof from the world outside. In those days, foreigners were debarred from entering Nepal. If they wanted to enter Nepal, they had to secure permission from the government. As a result, the number of tourists who visited Nepal in those days was extremely negligible.
After the political revolution of 1950, due to various favorable circumstances, Nepal's contact with different countries of the world went on widening. Then in 1957, the Tourism Development Board was formed. In 1958, the Department of Tourism was set up and along with the Nepal could become successful in acquiring membership of various international tourist associations. This industry has been extending these days and number of tourists arrival also increasing these days. Various programs have been operating for the development of tourism industry and tourism policy as also been more liberal.